Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 4
To the honorable Justices of the Court of General Sessions of the Peace & Court of Common Pleas for the County of Middlesex &ca.
373The voice of the People of this County is that the Court of General Sessions of the Peace and Court of Common Pleas shall not enter this Court House until such time as the People shall have a redress of a number of Grievances they labour under at present, which will be set forth in a petition or remonstrance to the next General Court.
True Copy
¼ past three oClock.
Since writing the within it is agreed that the Court of Sessions may Open, and Adjourn till the last Tuesday in November next, without going to the Court House.
True Copy from the original on file in the Secretary’s Office.
Job Shattuck (1736–1819) was a prosperous farmer in his native Groton, which he served as selectman (1778, 1779, 1781) and regularly as a committeeman. During the Revolution, he saw active military service from the beginning at important engagements including Lexington and Concord, Bunker Hill, and the surrender of Burgoyne. Among his commands was that of a captain in Col. John Robinson’s regiment. By the end of the war he was captain of the local militia company. The post-war monetary crisis led to the obstruction of the county courts, and Shattuck, as a key leader in that movement, was tried and convicted of treason. Gov. John Hancock later issued Shattuck a full pardon (Lemuel Shattuck, Memorials of the Descendants of William Shattuck [Boston, 1855], 121–130).